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System Description

The Tipara system is former human colony world. Centuries ago, humans colonized this system for mining and shipbuilding. Heavy metals and other rare resources were easily accessible in the dense asteroid field. After decade upon decade of mining and construction, however, the asteroids were mined out, and the gas giants were deemed too expensive to mine. The shipbuilder abandoned the system, and the system was abandoned shortly thereafter.

The system is small, having only 4 planets mostly centered very close to a young (and very hot) blue dwarf. The only interesting planet from a habitability perspective is a hot Jupiter orbiting at around 3 AU from the star, actually a little inside the human habitability zone.

Tipara II itself is far too turbulent to be inhabitable; periodic great storms sweep across the upper atmosphere with supersonic winds strong enough to overcome all but the most powerful repulsor-stabilizer systems.

Despite being itself uninhabitable, the planet is accompanied by three interesting groups of satellites. The first is a large moon oddly orbiting the L2 Lagrangian point, forever in the shadow of the planet. Residual radiated heat from the gas giant keeps the moon cold but habitable. The main shipyard was once based on and around this moon, but the infrastructure (including the orbiting platforms) have long since been removed. This moon is continuously in the planet's shadow, rendering it perpetually dark. Years ago, when the system was used as a shipyard, a large number of Elom were transplanted to the moon to be used as manual labor. A small percentage of the laborers were left behind when the shipyard operation moved on, and they continue to inhabit this moon, living off specially-bred fungal species biomodified to survive in the dank coldness of the moon.

Though the L2 moon is odd and interesting, the most notable features of the system are the other planetoids shepherding the 3-AU gas giant, orbiting the L4 and L5 Lagragian points. Most of the planetoids at the L5 point were dense with heavy metals; after they were mined out, they crumbled and broke up, and the L5 point now is orbited by a single remaining main body (roughly 1000 km in diameter) with an extensive, if lumpy, ring system. The main body has been mined out to an incredible extent, leaving large hollow pockets in the silica. Scans of the system indicate that the surface is too unstable in most areas for heavy landing craft. There is some abandoned mining equipment still on or in the planetoid, but no one has dared try to recover it because of the extensive debris field and the unstable nature of the body.

Finally, we come to the L4 Lagrangian point. The bodies shepherded to this orbit were more silicate-heavy, leaving them more stable after their richer elements were mined out. One of the bodies in particular, a fully spherical body nearly 1400 km in diameter, is heavily cratered. Scans indicate that the craters still hold reasonably breathable air, and the debris field filters out enough sunlight to keep the planetoid cool enough for life. The atmosphere is thin and cold, but some of the mining tunnels and pits hold enough air for normal life; the surface of the planet has an atmosphere equivalent to roughly 3,000m above sea level on Earth.

Asteroid Field

Thick fields of asteroids, but almost entirely silicate and ice; all heavy-metal-rich asteroids moved in-system and eventually mined out